First AG brew, Mistakes I made.

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Triker750

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Well i did it, up at the crack of a sparrows fart, equipment checked and away i went.
Jolly good i thought, i know what i am doing after the advice i got on this fourm.
Wrong.
Panic set in when i realised my strike temp was way to low, had already added a quarter of the grains.
Had to add four kettles of boiling water to get it up to temp, so a little to much water in the mash tun to start.
Added the rest of the grain, stirred it well and sealed it up for 90mins.
Fly sparge went well, took a while though.
Back into the boiler with the wort, and i had forgoten to fit the hop strainer, clean rubber glove and a burnt hand later the strainer was on.
Brought to the boil and add the hops as and when required.
Chiller works really well, temp came down quite fast.
Hop strainer need to be redesigned, leaves to much behind in the boiler.

Into the FV, check temp, thermometer says 26deg so pitched the yeast. BUT, when i turned on my digital probe it says temp is 29.5deg, Will the yeast be all right or should i repitch when temp is 22deg?????

Apart from that it all went well, some things need to be tuned a bit but overall it seemed Ok.
Time will tell.
Took me from 5.30 this morning till 1.15 this afternoon, but it was real fun to do and i enjoyed it tremendously. I am sure the time will come down when i really get to grips with it.
Cheer and beers to all,
Bob (now from the dark side) :thumb:
 
5.30! That's dedicated.
Gradually your cock up's will become fewer and as you become more accustomed to the process you'll become complacent and make some more :D

Welcome to the dark side.
 
Well done on your first AG :cheers:

Give it about 2 days to see if the yeast is fine, chance are you may have got away with it :thumb:
 
Well done mate, it takes a few brews to get comfotable with your equipment, and as BY says watch for signs of life, otherwise be prepared to pitch more yeasties, what's the brew? good luck with it anyway :cheers:
 
I'm sure your yeast will be fine. I've pitched far too warm before and got away with it.

As for the hop strainer, forgetting its a right pain, I've done that before too. In future leave it in the boiler permanently.

Give us a picky of your hop strainer and your mash Tun manifold and maybe we could offer some design tips to make them work better.

Welcome to the dark side :drink:
 
Hi, Brew is a nice simple Summer Lightning, only one grain for a newbie to worry about.
I have dismissed the first hop strainer and made another.
I will take some pics of the kit today for you guys to see and offer advice on.
I do have a lot of dead space in the boiler, fitted the tap a little high, but that was for convenience and lazyness.
5.30 is my normal up for work time, the old body just gets into it and wont let me sleep any longer, and of course the wife is in bed.
I will have to construct an extraction hood for over the boiler, lots of steam and a very wet kitchen, wife not to impressed.
Ok thanks for the encouragement about the yeast, i will watch it and if no movement tomorrow i will repitch, using S04.
Try to load some pics later today, just in from work and its boiling here at the moment.
Thanks again for all the encouragement,
Time for a homebrew.
Bob :cheers:
 

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